Simón Bolívar

Simón Bolívar (24 July 1783-17 December 1830) was President of Gran Colombia from 1819 to 1830, President of Peru from 1824 to 1827, and the President of Bolivia in 1825. Born into a wealthy Venezuelan family of Canarian and Spanish descent in the city of Caracas, Simón Bolívar led South America's independence struggle in northern South America during the South American Wars of Liberation, and won several battles that confirmed the independence of South America's countries from Spain.

Biography
Simón Bolívar was born into a wealthy Venezuelan family in Caracas. In 1811, he fought in the defense of a newly declared Venezuelan republic, but was forced into exile by a pro-Spanish royalist reaction. Based in neighboring New Granada, he launched an invasion of Venezuela in February 1813, sweeping aside the royalist forces to enter Caracas in August and install himself at the head of a military government. Lacking popular support, however, he was driven out again the following year by an army of pro-royalist llaneros, mounted bandits of the Venezuelan plains. The arrival of a powerful expeditionary force from Spain completed his discomfiture by occupying New Granada. Bolívar had to rebuild from scratch. Based in the Venezuelan outback, he allied with the previously hostile llaneros. He also recruited a legion of battle-hardened British and Irish volunteers.

Return to Venezuela
In 1819, Bolívar led his army on a march across reputedly impassible terrain into New Granada, routing the Spanish at Boyaca. In 1821 he returned to Venezuela at the head of an army of 7,000, scoring a decisive victory at Carabobo in June. Now in possession of Colombia and Venezuela, Bolívar marched on to campaigns in Ecuador and Peru.

His second-in-command, Sucre, was responsible for most of the fighting, although Bolívar commanded in person at the cavalry battle of Junin in August 1824. Bolivar aspired to unite a large area of South America under his personal rule, but the continent was already disintegrating into warring states when he died, at the age of 47.